JAZZ CHICK

Music from her breast, vibrating
Soundseared into burnished velvet.
Silent hips deceiving fools.
Rivulets of trickling ecstacy
From the alabaster pools of Jazz
Where music cools hot souls.
Eyes more articulately silent
Than Medusa’s thousand tongues.
A bridge of eyes, consenting smiles
reveal her presence singing
Of cool remembrance, happy balls
Wrapped in swinging
Jazz
Her music…
Jazz.

  — Bob Kaufman (1925 - 1986), New Orleans-born Beat Poet.

ALKALINE TRIO - STUPID KID

There are things that used to make me smile
One of them was you for just a little while
You left me for dead so far away
I replaced you with fear and shame
You’ll be happy on the day I die

There are things that used to make me laugh
But now they’re deeply buried in the past
I left them there so far away
Replaced my humor with my pain
I’ll be happy on the day it dies

Remember when I said I love you
Well forget it I take it back
I was just a stupid kid back then
I take back every word that I said

There are things that used to make you cry
One of them was me for just a little while
Why is it that you had to say
Goodbye in your special way
You slashed the tires on my car

Remember when I said I love you
Well forget it I take it back
I was just a stupid kid back then
I take back every word that I said

Remember when I said I love you
Well forget it I take it back
I was just a stupid kid back then
I take back every word that I said

YOU

You create poetry
by simply standing
in the
afternoon rain,
cigarette dangling
from a crooked
smile.

Some of us
have to work
harder
at this kind of thing.

  — William Taylor Jr., American poet based in San Francisco

JOHNNY CASH - HELP ME

O Lord, help me walk
Another mile, just one more mile;
I’m tired of walkin’ all alone.

And Lord, help me to smile
Another smile, just one more smile;
Don’t think I can do things on my own.

I never thought I needed help before;
I thought that I could get by, by myself.
But now I know I just can’t take it any more.
With a humble heart, on bended knee,
I’m beggin’ you, please, for help.

O come down from your golden throne
To me, to lowly me;
I need to feel the touch of your tender hand.

Release these chains of darkness
Let me see, Lord, let me see;
Just where I fit into your master plan.

I never thought I needed help before;
I thought that I could get by, by myself.
Now I know I just can’t take it any more.
And with a humble heart, on bended knee,
I’m beggin’ you, please, for help.

And with a humble heart, on bended knee,
I’m beggin’ you, please, for help.

SMASHING PUMPKINS - DISARM

Disarm you with a smile
And cut you like you want me to
Cut that little child
Inside of me and such a part of you
Ooh, the years burn
Ooh, the years burn

I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my choice
What’s a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you

Disarm you with a smile
And leave you like they left me here
To wither in denial
The bitterness of one who’s left alone
Ooh, the years burn
Ooh, the years burn, burn, burn

I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my voice
What’s a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you

The killer in me is the killer in you
Send this smile over to you
The killer in me is the killer in you
Send this smile over to you
The killer in me is the killer in you
Send this smile over to you